Style Abbreviations

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sdbbp

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Today is over-thinking it day.

I'm using tiny beer labels (bottle cap stickers) with limited space. Instead of naming beers, I'm using my batch number, plus some abbreviation for the style. Some are obvious, because they are already in use (e.g. ESB, IPA, WCIPA), but others aren't (Porter or American Porter = ???). Does any know of a broader list of common abbreviations (acronyms or just shortenings, like "Hef")? The label has ABV and bottling date, as well. Some possibilities in my mind:

  • BJCP style numbers. "13C". Effective, unambiguous, short. Super nerdy and not at all useful to any lay-friends searching in the cooler.
  • BJCP style name abbreviations. "BBA", "EP", "BDSA", "Sai". Effective, but not an unambiguous convention. "BDSA" could be clear, but something like "BelDrk" might be more helpful to friends.
  • Batch number and whatever, keep a batch description sheet handy.
 
^^This is a great idea. QR codes can go surprisingly small and still be scannable. I have a Beckett authentication code on one of my jerseys and you can barely see it.
 
This isn't going to be a silver bullet solution for you, but it may help you structure your thoughts a bit.

I've been brewing for decades and my My Recipes folder in Beersmith had slowly become a confusing mess with hundreds of recipes with no real organizing philosophy behind them. I had a breakthrough during COVID when I decided that I wanted to really learn how to make fizzy yellow swill to a high standard. I decided to take my Dad's favorite description for such beers, "panther piss," as the name for my first recipe. It also occurred to me that most adjunct lagers are kinda modular, if you keep the basic adjunct package and switch out the base malt you can start building an entire family of beers around a basic adjunct package. Hmm...interesting. The recipe Panther Piss became The Panther Piss Project and each variation received its own name, Panther Piss Classic, Panther Piss Amber, Panther Piss Dark, etc. Suddenly, I had a large block of recipes that made sense and were easily conducive to proper versioning standards within the wider anarchy of my My Reicpes folder. Ah, ha! Very good!

I then tackled my UK-style ales by naming them Oi, [naughty word]! then the style name. Now, I have another large block of organized and properly versioned recipes. I'm now employing this system with my German recipes.

I keg, so I can easily remember what's in the big silver cans. If I had to, I could label them PPD.IV.7 meaning Panther Piss Dark, recipe four, seventh iteration. OCBP.III.4 would be Oi, [naughty word]! Brown Porter, recipe three, fourth iteration. PMMPVIII.2 would be Pet My Monkey! (the name of the German series) Pils, recipe eight, iteration two. Sadly, I'm going to have to come up with a shorter name for the German series, but I really like Pet My Monkey!

I'm not sure if this'll be any help to you, but it's been a huge relief for me. If nothing else, maybe it will give a structure to start playing with while you work toward something that better suits your needs.

Hope this helps.
 

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For 100 years or more breweries didn't give their beers names all that often. The breweries used letter codes.
X was mild (XX, XXX, XXXX were stronger versions of mild)
PA was pale ale... and for the longest time even IPA was simply noted asPA
AK was a version of pale ale
Brown ales were DB or DBS (Double Brown Stout)
Porter was sometimes designated TT
Stout early on was BS or BSt (Brown Stout) IBSt was Imperial Brown Stout

There were many more designating keeping ales from running ales, exports and special brews.
 
I'm not sure if this'll be any help to you, but it's been a huge relief for me. If nothing else, maybe it will give a structure to start playing with while you work toward something that better suits your needs.

Hope this helps.

If I get around to true series, instead of being all over the place, this would work.
 
For 100 years or more breweries didn't give their beers names all that often. The breweries used letter codes.
X was mild (XX, XXX, XXXX were stronger versions of mild)
PA was pale ale... and for the longest time even IPA was simply noted asPA
AK was a version of pale ale
Thanks. I went searching on this and found at least one blog post with more links. https://www.beeretseq.com/brewers-marks-explained/
 
I like linking beers to songs, mostly Grateful Dead. So my series beers are 10% and up so they are Stronger Then Dirt,aged for about a year, so there is just STD 24, this year a RIS barrel aged. So Jack Straw is an American wheat, Helles in a bucket; you get the drift. My ESB/Mild is Brokedown Palace, how fitting now days.
 
Just beware that QR codes might be hard to scan on a round surface. More than half of our advent crate of beer members couldn't scan mine properly and I made them rather small. Flat they worked fine. Try them out on a bottle first before committing two crates worth of labels, ink and paper to your brews.
 
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